ON BOARD THE TRANSPORT.
The regiment went aboard the Government transport, No.
14--Concho--June 7, 1898. On the same vessel were the 14th U.S.
Infantry, a battalion of the 2d Massachusetts Volunteers and Brigade
Headquarters, aggregating about 1,300 soldiers, exclusive of the
officers. This was the beginning of real hardship. The transport had
either been a common freighter or a cattle ship. Whatever had been its
employment before being converted into a transport, I am sure of
one thing, it was neither fit for man nor beast when soldiers were
transported in it to Cuba. The actual carrying capacity of the vessel
as a transport was, in my opinion, about 900 soldiers, exclusive of
the officers, who, as a rule, surround themselves with every possible
comfort, even in actual warfare. A good many times, as on this
occasion, the desire and demand of the officers for comfort worked
serious hardships for the enlisted men. The lower decks had been
filled with bunks. Alas! the very thought of those things of torture
makes me shudder even now. They were arranged in rows, lengthwise the
ship, of course, with aisles only two feet wide between each row. The
dimensions of a man's bunk was 6 feet long, 2 feet wide and 2 feet
high, and they were arranged in tiers of four, with a four inch board
on either side to keep one from rolling out. The Government had
furnished no bedding at all.
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